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Data Accessibility

This slide deck was presented at East Bay Educational Collaborative Professional Development Center in Warren, Rhode Island on April 12, 2016 where Ruth Krumhansl was a guest speaker. In addition to this presentation, Ruth also led several workshops on EDC Earth Science. The audience was about 45 teachers from all across New England.

What does it mean to be data literate in the world of “big data”? What should we be teaching students to better prepare them to participate in today’s workforce and society? What steps need to be taken to develop critical data literacy skills in schools? To seek answers to these questions, EDC’s Oceans of Data Institute (ODI) convened an expert panel of both data analysts and educators for a workshop on data literacy.

In 2013, the Oceans of Data Institute (ODI) released Visualizing Oceans of Data: Educational Interface Designreport, which offers a set of guidelines for designing interactive tools to engage students with data. ODI applied these guidelines during the development of Ocean Tracks, an online interface that enables students to explor

Ruth Krumhansl, Founder of the Oceans of Data Institute (ODI), describes all the ways big data is changing lives today, the challenges that big data brings, and why ODI is working to transform education to include more data-relevant instruction.

"Data will be part of [student's] future and it should be part of their instruction too".

This program is developing and classroom testing a Web interface and data analysis tools that engage students in scientific investigations using data from the Tagging of Pacific Predators (TOPP) Program, NOAA’s Drifter Program, and the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis.

Large, high-quality online scientific datasets give today’s students the opportunity to work with authentic data and participate in real scientific work. Yet the educational promise of these datasets will not be met without concerted effort. ODI has created two reports to support interface and tool designers in their efforts to create data visualization tools for the classroom.

The project team has developed supports to allow high school teachers and students to access and use climate-related data from the Goddard Interactive Online Visualization and Analysis Intrastructure (GIOVANNI) data portal.

Ocean Tracks: Investigating Marine Migrations in a Changing Ocean has piloted several models of curriculum supports to guide student work with data regarding the movements of marine animals and relate these movements to physical oceanographic measurements such as sea surface temperature, chlorophyll, currents and human impacts....

The company Strava was in the news recently for its ability to display highly accurate maps using position data from personal fitness devices (e.g., Fitbit, Apple Watch, etc.). Not only are GPS fitness devices tracking a person’s mileage on land, many also track water activities, such as swimming, to within a few meters.

The documents included in Tools for Building a Big Data Career Path can assist schools looking to design and implement career pathways in big data. These tools have been used by community colleges involved in the NSF-ATE funded Creating Pathways for Big Data Careers (DUE-1501927). They consist of:

1. Building Blocks for a Big Data Career PathwayThis template can be used to present the programs, courses, supporting activities, school and employer linkages that comprise a school’s proposed pathway.